Texas MBA Energy Finance Team Lights Tower

The Tower on The University of Texas at Austin campus shined orange on Oct. 7 to honor the Texas MBA Energy Finance Group's first place win in the 6th Annual National Energy Finance Challenge (NEFC), hosted by the McCombs School of Business. The winning team members are Jordan Hobfoll, Ian Rainbolt, Nick Matovich, Homer Bhullar and Vivek Ponnada, all in the McCombs Class of 2011.

The NEFC is an MBA business case competition that features real-world finance issues specific to the energy industry. This year’s case, written by Chevron, centered on an international shale gas development and commercialization project.

According to Nick Matovich, “Each team in the competition played the role of a large U.S. independent oil and gas producer invited to the final round of the concession bidding process. Participants were required to analyze the merits and challenges inherent in the development project and deliver a financial and strategic valuation proposal to both the country’s national oil company and national government representatives.”

The teams received the case on Sept. 23, 2010 and were required to turn in their final presentations three days later.

MBA candidates from 15 of the top programs in the country participated in the competition. Teams from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University and NYU’s Stern School of Business tied for second place, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania took fourth. Other participating schools were Harvard, Yale, MIT, Cornell, Virginia-Darden, Michigan, UNC, Purdue, Chicago, Berkeley, Columbia and Duke.

The event was held Sept.30-Oct. 1 at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center on the university campus. Sponsors for the challenge included Chevron Corporation, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch Commodities, El Paso Corporation and the McCombs School’s Energy Management and Innovation Center.